On a drive around The County today, I found myself thinking about something I find very troubling.
You see, we rent our house... but due to problems with a somewhat sleazy owner of the property (he actually owns the whole neighbourhood, a former residential community built for the Canadian military), we really need to find a new place to live. The owner wants to sell off all the houses, but although he stands to make millions on the deal, he expects the people buying them to shoulder ALL the expenses of the sales - including the ones that generally are the responsibility of the vendor of a property (for example, he is trying to get The County to assume the roads so he can legally sever the lots. In order to get severances he would be required to survey all the lots - but he expects the purchasers to pay for the surveys that would make it legal for HIM to sell the houses). In addition, he has used harassment and other illegal methods to displace renters from the houses around us. Well, there is a lot more to it than that... but that's not the point. We want to move. This house does not suit our needs as a family. We have some sketchy folks in the neighbourhood. We don't have enough space.
The problem is - there is no place to rent in this area. I spent a lot of time in and around the area as a kid, with my grandparents living just across the bay and my aunt living in The County for many, many years. We thought moving here would be great - rural, agricultural, inexpensive, low pollution - just what we wanted. But it isn't that, any more. Instead, PEC seems to be turning into the new "Cottage Country" for Ontario. Houses for rent? Sure - except the people want to rent them seasonally for fall, winter and spring, and on a weekly basis in the summer to make gobs of cash. As a family, we can't live in a house for 3 seasons and then have no home for summer. All we've wanted was our own place to set down roots.
Sadly, the "Powers That Be" here are too shortsighted to understand that the strategy they think will bring them loads of cash in property taxes is not a sustainable one. Too many believe that the answer to this little rural county's woes are to bring in huge numbers of newly retired, empty-nest Baby Boomers from Toronto and environs. Why bring in these people? Because they have large reserves of cash thanks to owning homes in one of the most expensive markets in Canada. You see, if you bring in these people who have retired and don't need to work, and have a house in the city which has appreciated from $40000 in 1970 to $700000 now, you can suck them in by telling them that paying half a million dollars for a home with some land is just an awesome deal. Of course, this same half a million dollar property was just $80000 10 years ago here. I mean, its a great deal - the greedy among the real estate agents (yes - I am looking at you Slik) get filthy rich off their inflated commissions. The county government gets to use new "market value assessment" rules to jack property tax rates by outrageous amounts. All this puts a lot of money in the pockets of the county so they can do all the things the subural people want - hey, let's pave all the county roads and side roads. Let's ban all the ATVs and get rid of most of the snowmobile trails, because they are so noisy for these sensitive city folk who are only used to the dull constant drone of a city 24/7... Let's build a shiny new, completely environmentally unfriendly sewage treatment system that we'll have to keep spending money on year after year. Hell, we've got the money - lets spend it, spend it all!
Problem is - it is NOT sustainable. The County, with an already aging population of farmers, is becoming too expensive a place for anyone to live without a very lucrative job or complete financial independence. There are no significant high-paying industries locally. The population is too small to sustain a lot of doctors, lawyers and the like and the distances are too far to commute from the areas where these professionals can find clients. So, at the moment, young families willing to work as best they can to make ends meet and to have a little place in the country have been priced out of the market. Sure, you might find a shitty little old rowhouse to rent or buy, or a house that is rotting off its footings. But warm, safe, with some space for kids? Forget it. Not unless you have a minimum income over $40K a year.
The trouble doesn't show up today or tomorrow, or next year. What happens, though, in 10 years, and 15, and 20, when all these 55-65 year olds are 75 and 85? What happens when all these craptacular "executive mansions" they have built are no good for their "I'm just rattling around in this big old house" attitude? What happens when their health fails and they have to move into senior's homes and nursing homes? Who is going to be able to buy these places when the property taxes alone are the budget of some small African nations? Where is the money going to come from to pay to maintain all the paved roads and amenities that all these misplaced citiots are demanding right now?
There is no natural progression here. There is no turnover like is seen in so many neighbourhoods, where an aging population raises their kids and then moves on so someone else can raise their kids. There is absolutely NO practical value for most of these huge "mansions" people are building as their dream homes, except for the wealthiest and most prolific of Catholic familes. I owned a house 15 years ago that the entire house AND LOT would fit inside one of these disgraceful pretentious eyesores... So what happens when the 60-something kids of these 80-something Baby Boomer-former Yuppies don't want these houses? No one who can afford to buy them or heat them, because there is no employment other than farming - and all these subural houses are built on the decent farms!
So, what IS going to happen when the collapse comes? Better hope there are a lot of dot com millionaires looking for a little place in The County, because there are literally hundreds of these overpriced, oversized, inefficient consumerist monstrosities going up every day. And don't even get me started on questioning the sustainability of the dozens and dozens of wineries popping up. Give me a break, there are only SO MANY TOURISTS you can suck into taking a Taste The County tour.
My aunt has said to me that the county needs new blood, young people involved in the government, on council. We had a young person running for mayor in the last election - he got half the votes the old-fart, addle-brained borderline-senile incumbent mayor received. The truth is, even though new blood and young people are needed, the fogies aren't going to relinquish their control until it is pried from their cold, dead hands.
Not when they have an entire 1048 square kilometres over which they can scream "GET OFF MY LAWN!"
